Finding Home
by FirreFlye
Summary: Home is often overlooked, and very misunderstood. [She was always cold, and starving, and quite alone.] Kataracentric and very slight Kataang. Please R


**Disclaimer: For the last time, I don't own Avatar, so don't sue me.**

Home

The ideal of home had always been very vague to Katara. Once, when she was young, home had been an animal skin tent at the base of a small ice pit. It had meant cozy nights snuggled against the warmth of her furry blankets, the chilly mornings, and the familiar scent of dried meats hung out to cure.

But it wasn't until her youth had been ripped away, did she begin to question her previous idea of a home.

When the scorch of flames and stench of ash descended upon the icy tundra, she closed her eyes and wished the plague away and in time, fresh fallen snow covered the once ashen ground. The winds brought back the smell of crisp ocean and Arctic air to the small ice pit she had called home her short life.

But never again was it as satisfying to sit down and eat a bowl of warm stewed sea prunes or to settle into her blankets on the coldest of winter nights. No, instead her belly would rumble for the fullness of something that was already gone and her blankets would stay frigid like the banks of snow she had played in all day.

The tents were never cozy and the lights that lit up the sky, not quite as bright. The spaces were always empty, no matter how many people there were. It was as if her whole world- her village's ice shelf- had been turned upside down and dumped into the dark abyss of the ocean.

She was always cold, and starving, and quite alone.

So many moons later, she would then question why she should stay in a place that no longer kept her warm or safe. And then, with a certain bitterness and sadness she could not fully explain at the time, she took off to bigger and better places without half a thought, on the back of a flying beast with a bald airbending monk.

Katara learned to forget about the emptiness as she desperately tried to fill the void war had left her with…what her Mother had left her with.

It wasn't so hard to do either, what with all the running and flying around she was doing. All of the new people she met kept her on her toes, and begging for more adventure and heartfelt experiences.

It wasn't until Katara had left the North Pole, that she would let a familiar thought cross her mind. _Home._

At one time, she had pictured it to be the South Pole; an arctic shelf inhabited by her small, almost non-existent tribe, and penguins. She had thought of snow and ice, a ring of tents and the old withered out healer who had been around since everyone could remember. She had thought of the beautiful blues and greens that lit up the sky a few times a year. But when her Mother had gone away never to return, and her Father off to war- those things, all of them, had become empty and nonexistent.

_Family._

When her family had been torn apart- separated by both ocean and another life- they had broken apart the warmth and the security of home.

The thought ran through her mind occasionally when she would lay out on her sleeping bag, looking up at the dark heavens. But one particular time, she realized something she had come to dismiss.

She had a family again.

As she had propped her head upon one palm, and gazed around the silent clearing; taking in the faces and their varying skin and hair tones. Sokka, Toph, Aang, even Appa and Momo. They were all from different places, of different cultures and backgrounds- and as her eyes came to rest on the furry form perched upon her brother's chest- different _species,_ they had all come together to make a little less than perfect family.

The campfire was so warm from where she lay and the stars twinkled like stars she had never seen before. The grass was so soft it tickled her toes when she brushed her feet across the ground.

Katara smiled then, as she looked over at her airbending friend. She silently leaned down to his sleeping form and whispered softly:

"Thank you for bringing me home."

**A/N:**

**Yay! I'm on a role guys! Three updates in a _day_?! That never happens… ever.**

**I'm happy with how this turned out, and I hope y'all enjoyed it.**

**Please review for the sake of my sanity.**


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